November 3, 2007

Not Raining On My Parade

So, this is the first real storm we’ve had of “Hurricane Season 2007.” I’m happy, because this is the first local storm like this I’ve heard about via blogs instead of on some breathless over-produced weather news show. It’s just a refreshing change.

Dramatic events like storms draw people together, even if they don’t end up amounting to much. People like to talk about what they did during the storm, where they were, and who they were with.

Even a dud storm is fodder for nostalgia, because you can recall all the times an over-hyped storm didn’t live up to its billing. Like the time they evacuated the SMU1 campus for Hurricane Gloria.

Gloria dropped moderate precipitation in the area amounting to a maximum of 6 inches (150 mm) in Littleville Lake, Massachusetts. In addition, Gloria caused significant beach erosion in Connecticut and Rhode Island.1

“Significant beach erosion” is the booby prize of Hurricane TV game shows, like winning a copy of the home version of The Hurricane Game.

Today, we’ve scheduled indoor activities. I’m an indoor runner anyhow, and the kids and I are going shopping briefly before we seek out some exotic noodle dishes at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. They’ve never been, but I’m hoping that exposure to their more adventurous cousins will help them broaden their epicurian horizons.

K is already pretty adventurous, in that she’ll try most foods (and not like them). M is a hard case and will shut up like a clam when faced with the out-of-the-ordinary. I’m surprised she is aggreeing to come, but I figure she probably thinks we’re heading to the type of Chinese restaurant she’s used to2.

I have a lot of non-electronic entertainment to catch up on, so if we lose power I’ll actually have a hpapy excuse not to turn on the computer or TV. Trapped inside with books? hat’s a dream, at least until it turns into a nightmare… time enough at last…

If you’re not a Twilight Zone fan, I’ll let Pink Floyd explain.

1 What is now called UMass Dartmouth, young whippersnapper.

2 This place does serve some of the Chinese dishes you’d expect to see at a New England Chinese food restaurant. But it’s mostly Cambodian, Thai, Vietnamese and Laoasian.

In the way back from lunch, K commented "This is only part of the hurricane?" I said "Yes, it's not really a hurricane anymore."

But the winds were blustery. When we got home there was a large broken tree branch hanging over our street, just across from our house. I thought I could wrestle it down, lest it fall on someone, or their car, but the bare-hands method was not working. It was interlocked with the tree, and out of reach high enough that vigorous shaking made no difference.

I had to actually get tools before it would budge. But budge it did, eventually.

I actually realized that we don't have any candles or any non-electric light source here. I have a decent amount of books, and we have some unopened board games but sadly for the most part all of our entertainment comes from the TV or computers. No matter how hard I try to move us away from that, it never works.